PayPal, the San Jose, California-based payments giant, has unveiled its own stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), which it hopes will foster broader adoption of digital tokens for payments, Bloomberg reports. 

This development is a milestone in the digital payments realm since it is PayPal’s most significant move in the cryptocurrency space since it first ventured into it in late 2020 — a pivotal moment for the industry.

Rumors about PayPal’s foray into the stablecoin sector have been swirling for quite a while, with Bloomberg reporting that the project was out on hold in February. 

The PYUSD, which is pegged to the dollar, is issued by Paxos Trust.  

The coin will gradually be made accessible to PayPal’s vast customer base.

Dan Schulman, the outgoing CEO of PayPal, underscored the long-term vision for PYUSD, remarking that it’s anticipated to become an integral component of the overall payments infrastructure.

In October 2020, PayPal announced that its US customers could buy, sell, and hold selected cryptocurrencies - namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin - directly through their PayPal accounts. 

Further, in early 2021, PayPal launched a feature that allowed US customers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of online merchants globally. 

As of late December 2022, the company held more than $600 million worth of customers’ crypto. 

In April, the payments giant announced that it would enable crypto transfers from Venmo accounts.